Free First Comes The One Who Wanders by Lynette S. Jones Page B

sheathed his weapon.
    His criticism left Leilas speechless. She stood silent as Joshuas rummaged through the cloaks of the dead men and pocketed the few silver coins they had in his cloak. Then he took their insignia and pocketed them as well.
    "Let's get out of here before all the minions you called by your clumsiness descend upon us."
    Leilas bit back the retort that was on her lips. Instead, she gathered her reins, with shaking hands, and mounted her horse. She contented herself by vacillating between anger, guilt and fuming silently as she followed Joshuas to the meadow where her mother and Brenth were waiting.
    Her mother gave her a probing stare, which she returned with a defiant one as she entered the meadow then turned to Joshuas. His welfare seemed to be more important to her mother. Leilas slouched in her saddle as the two spoke together and tried not to care that she seemed to be forgotten and not considered to have an opinion worthy of consideration. She was tired, sore and one of the magiks had managed to sink his teeth into her at least once. She'd check it out later when she had a bit more privacy. She wasn't interested in another lecture on how incompetent she was, or her lack of training, or in hearing that the wolf would have never been able to get his teeth into her if she were a better magik.
    If Joshuas thought she was such a poor magik, then why had he put her in the rear? She fumed to herself. He must have known the odds were they would be attacked from that direction. Leilas frowned into the darkness and shrouded her thoughts more tightly to herself. She did know how to keep her thoughts to herself, despite what Joshuas might think.
    "The cave is still our best option," said Joshuas, after his brief discussion with Queen Daina. "This road is a bit tricky at night, but it isn't much further."
    Joshuas helped Daina up into the saddle then took the lead. Brenth frowned at Joshuas usurping his task of helping his mother, but said nothing. He merely tapped his heels into his horse's flank and fell into line. Leilas simply let her mount follow. She hoped that Joshuas was correct and the cave wasn't far. She wasn't going much further tonight.
    It took them a good part of the next hour, but they finally reached the cave. It was a good place to spend the night. There was room for their mounts to enter, so they were out of sight, and yet the entrance was almost impossible to find, hidden behind a thick curtain of hanging ivy.
    Leilas slipped from her mount and almost fell to the floor from exhaustion. Steadying herself by hanging on to the saddle horn, she pretended she was gathering her food and water. No one else seemed to be having trouble and once again, she didn't want to be the odd one out.
    She wasn't used to expending so much energy in one day, on top of fighting her reaction to all that she'd seen and done, and the inevitable darkness that seemed to overwhelm her when she used magic to hurt others. There was also that unknown presence that seemed to be haunting her. She'd spent a great deal of energy protecting herself in case the presence returned.
    Not that anyone cared, not that anyone had noticed. Leilas loosed her water flask from the saddle horn, untied her bag of food and slumped to the floor, resting her back on a rock that stuck up from the ground. Joshuas lit the cavern with an eerie, greenish light. It seemed it was perfectly fine if he used his magic. It just wasn't all right if she used hers.
    Taking a deep drink of the lukewarm water, Leilas wrapped her cloak tightly around her and closed her eyes. She didn't consider herself pampered, but she definitely wasn't used to no good food, no wine to drink, and most importantly, no bed.
    "You need to take care of your horse." Joshuas kicked her in her sore leg and she had to bite her lip to keep from crying out in pain. "You'll need him to be in good shape tomorrow. He won't get that way standing all night in a sweaty blanket and wearing a heavy